Oct 29, 2007 - 02:25 pm .- Nearly five hundred victims of religious persecution before and during the Spanish Civil War were beatified Sunday, making it the largest mass beatification in history. The crowd gathered for the ceremony included seventy-one Spanish bishops, 1,500 priests, 2,500 relatives of the martyrs, Spanish politicians and 4,000 Spanish pilgrims. St. Peter’s square was filled with pilgrims waving Spanish flags and showing their thanks for the beatification of the 498 martyrs.

Oct 29, 2007 - 02:09 pm .- Benedict XVI has written a letter to Giovanni Maria Vian for the occasion of his appointment as director of "L'Osservatore Romano," a role, the Pope writes, that is "of great responsibility because of the particular nature of the Vatican newspaper."

Oct 29, 2007 - 11:14 am .- The Office of Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff officially announced today the schedule for the consistory at which Pope Benedict XVI will create the 23 new cardinals.

Oct 29, 2007 - 11:12 am .- The president of the Bishops’ Conference of Brazil, Archbishop Geraldo Lyrio Rocha, said this week the country is passing through a time of “grave institutional crisis” and that therefore “profound political reform” is needed.

Oct 29, 2007 - 11:05 am .- The National Conference of Bishops of Brazil has reiterated its desire to host the next World Youth Day after Sydney 2008. The bishops made their initial request to host the event during Pope Benedict XVI’s recent visit to Brazil.

Oct 29, 2007 - 10:47 am .- Archbishops Theodore Adrien Sarr of Dakar (Senegal) and John Njue of Nairobi (Kenya) thanked Pope Benedict XVI for naming them to the college of cardinals, saying the appointment has caused much joy in their home countries, not only among Catholics but among the entire populace.

Oct 29, 2007 - 10:38 am .- Bartolome Blanco Marquez is one of the youngest of the group of 498 martyrs beatified by Pope Benedict XVI this past Sunday at the Vatican. A committed Catholic, the 22 year-old layman wrote a moving letter to his girlfriend Maruja just hours before his death.

Oct 29, 2007 - 09:45 am .- An international gathering of Catholic pharmacists was received by Pope Benedict today at the Vatican. In his talk with them, the Holy Father insisted that health professionals must be allowed the right to exercise conscientious objection when it comes to dispensing drugs that cause abortion or euthanasia— words that are sure to impact the debate about the abortion pill in the U.S. The Pope reminded the pharmacists that protecting human life from conception until natural death is part of their job. Benedict also encouraged them "to reflect upon the ever broader functions they are called to undertake, especially as intermediaries between doctor and patient," and upon their role in educating patients "in the correct use of medications" and in informing them of "the ethical implications of the use of particular drugs."

Oct 29, 2007 - 07:18 am .- In a report issued on October 11, 2007 by the Guttmacher Institute (the research arm of Planned Parenthood) and the World Health Organization (WHO), researchers emphasized the numbers of “unsafe abortions” in developing countries that do not have restrictive abortion policies. The researchers concluded that in order to achieve more “safe abortions”, governmental policies should continue to be loosened to provide access to them. However, statistician Keith Schumann explains that Planned Parenthood and the World Health Organization use weak or non-existent data to support a conclusion that cannot be found in the numbers.